I bought this prebuilt PC in 2020 and would like to upgrade it so it can handle newer games better. I'm not very experienced with building PCs, so I'm looking for beginner-friendly advice. My budget is roughly $500–$1,000, and I'm located in Florida. Current specs: Intel Core i5-9400F, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, ASRock B365 Phantom Gaming motherboard, 32GB of G.Skill DDR4-3200 RAM, and a 1TB Intel SSD (SSDPEKNW010T9). What should I upgrade first, and are there any compatibility or power-supply concerns I should check?
2 Answers
A GPU upgrade is the sensible first step, but the i5-9400F may hold back very powerful modern cards in some games. If you want a balanced upgrade, consider replacing the CPU, motherboard, and memory together later rather than investing heavily in the old platform. For now, a midrange GPU is the safer choice, and make sure the power supply is a reputable model with enough capacity. The B365 board may also limit your DDR4-3200 memory to a lower speed, but that usually isn’t worth fixing by itself.
The graphics card is the best place to start. It will make the biggest difference in modern games, especially if you play at 1080p or higher. Depending on current prices, look at a newer midrange card such as an RTX 5070-class or Radeon RX 9070-class model. Before buying, check your power supply’s wattage, available PCIe power connectors, and whether the card will physically fit in the case. Your 32GB of RAM is already plenty, so I wouldn’t upgrade that first.
My budget is around $500–$1,000. I’ll check the power supply and case before choosing a graphics card.